A Token of Love

Amanda discovers a world of gravel roads and old crank/party-line telephones when she moves from Atlanta to North Dakota. Leaving principalship of an elementary school, she commits to teaching in a two-room school. In the town of 92 people, she encounters unique characters and unusual experiences. As the year progresses, she develops a love for the community and her students. But, she holds a secret of why she left the city for a small town. Mix with this a rancher/horticulturalist, Bill, who spends several months elsewhere. After years of mysterious departures, the town accepts his absence but is happy when he is home. Will Amanda and Bill reveal their secrets to each other, and will their relationship grow? An older woman, Miss Emma, shares a knowledge of life and the world, far beyond her education and travels. You will also meet others: the telephone operator who knows everyone’s business, her blind husband who repairs the phone lines, the bashful mail carrier, the owners of the small store, and the students and their families. Activities include western dances, classroom experiences, moving a friend’s house onto wet cement, an auction, a unique cure for an infection, Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings, and other situations. Woven through the novel are religious concepts as well as information and history of the badlands and the Dakotas.